Mountain Ash Walking Stick

The found wood for this walking stick comes from a backyard mountian ash trimming. Often very usable wood is sitting close by but we don’t always notice it. The handle is made from a elk antler , the first year elk grow straight antler , the antlers grow as 2 single spikes known locally as a ’ spiker ’. These ‘spikes’ may grow 18 inches long or so , and quite straight . This elk had a close call with a hunter , just below the cornet [the large lumpy bit] you can see a slight off colour patch [repair] where a bullet grazed the side of the antler [see pic 6]. The repair was made with Quikwood epoxy putty , a putty that seems to work well with antler and is quite close in colour to the antler – great stuff [ http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=20057&cat=1,190,42997 ] . I made the putty repair slighty lumpy like the antler itself and added a little colour to part of the repair to diguise it . A Brunton ball compuss was mounted to the top , these compuss’ work well on hiking sticks as it is unaffected with the angle the stick is being held at, unlike a traditional compuss . SOLD